Trump says he will withdraw US from Paris accord

Open the White House Watch newsletter for free

Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world

US President Donald Trump has announced he will pull the US out of the historic Paris climate accord, dealing a blow to global efforts to slow global warming after the hottest year on record.

The move was announced on Monday, when Trump was sworn in to replace Joe Biden as US president.

“President Trump will withdraw from the Paris climate accord,” the White House said in a letter outlining the new administration’s priorities half an hour after the new president took office.

America’s withdrawal from the 2015 accord, which was signed by nearly 200 countries, means the world’s biggest historical polluter will once again walk away from its commitment to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Rachel Cletus, director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the US withdrawal was “a travesty” and “flagrantly at odds with the scientific facts”.

In his inauguration speech, Trump said he would seek to maximize the use of US oil and gas reserves, having previously described climate change as a “hoax”.

Last year was the first calendar year in which average temperatures exceeded the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 2C from pre-industrial times and preferably to 1.5C.

The world is on a temperature track rise to 2.9C Above pre-industrial levels, the UN report said.

The US is the only country to have withdrawn from the Paris accord in 2017, a process that took more than two years, but it rejoined under Biden in February 2021. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has also threatened to withdraw , but did not follow.

Simon Steele, head of the UN’s climate change department, which oversees the Paris accord, said on Monday: “The door remains open… . and we welcome the constructive engagement of all countries.”

Lawrence Tubiana, a key architect of the Paris accord, said the US withdrawal was “unfortunate” but the agreement was “stronger than any single country’s policies and politics”.

Some experts say Trump’s moves to reverse Biden’s “green” policies will give China, the world’s largest producer of electric cars, solar panels and batteries, an advantage.

“China will be more than happy to leave one of its world-leading EVs in the rearview mirror because US manufacturers can’t,” said Tim Sahai, co-director of the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

The Biden administration raised the bar on US climate targets in its final month in office, aiming to cut the economy’s greenhouse gas emissions by 61 to 66 percent by 2035 from 2005 levels.

At the recent UN summit in Baku, Joe Biden’s top climate adviser, John Podesta, acknowledged that US efforts to combat global warming “could be set in a trap” under the Trump White House, but sought to reassure US allies that this would not hinder a transition. to green energy and technology by businesses, states, cities and local governments.

Climate capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Discover the FT’s coverage here.

Curious about FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Learn more about our science-based targets here